Let’s all admit it, open container laws are a draconian, antiquated concept of the past. Some enlightened cities don’t prohibit consuming booze in public, and New Year’s Eve revelers were able to drink openly in places like Paris or New Orleans. Unfortunately, those cities still living in the past, such as the authorities on the Coromandel Peninsula of New Zealand, feel that the combination of alcohol, New Year’s Eve, and public spaces was a bad idea, so they therefore instituted a ban on drinking in public over the holiday. However, a creative group of Kiwis circumvented the ban by building a small island off the coast in “international waters.”
The innovative New Zealanders built a small island out of sand, complete with a picnic table and cooler. The New Zealand website Stuff reported that the islanders were drinking beer and watching fireworks into the New Year from their diminutive, improvised sandbar. Apparently the group had some sort of engineering or landscaping experience as the island survived into the next morning.
Evidently, the police in New Zealand have a good sense of humor, and thought the island was a funny way to circumvent the ban. “That’s creative thinking – if I had known [about it] I probably would have joined them,” said Inspector John Kelly the local police commander, according to the BBC.
The ban itself didn’t have much of an effect, and simply resulted in a multitude of arrests, community organizer Noddy Watts told the New Zealand Herald. The majority of those arrested were intoxicated teenagers, and Watts believes the ban was a misplacement of police manpower. “They were dealing with drunk teens. That’s not what they are there for. That’s what parents are there for,” Watts told the Herald.
Resident’s will have to wait and see if police implement the ban next year. If so, authorities could be faced with an archipelago of rebel islands.
